haru sakurai

[QUOTE=renayiiq]Excuse me? You obviously have NEVER been to El Paso. There's less white people here than there are hispanics. The hispanics own the damn place. And they still claim that they are opressed. [b]Priveleges? PRIVELEGES? I'm going to play nice and not insult you, but, for the record, being white has absolutely no priveleges.[/b] If someone says something racial to me, there's absolutely nothing that I can do about it. Because I'm white. If I had a good GPA -- no wait, make that an OUTSTANDING GPA -- and if I was one over the limit in white people allowed at a university or college, and that person that was a minority had a GPA way lower than mine, I still would not be accepted because I'm white. [b]I cannot speak as freely as someone of minority can. Did you know that because I am white, if I applied for a job, and a person of racial minority applied for the same job, and we both had the same skills, they'd get the job because people feel sorry for them?[/b] Don't act as if white people get everything. In reality, we don't. Don't even try to play the race card on me, saying that I have all this power because I'm white. That's pure ********.[/QUOTE] the biggest white privelege of all is being able to claim to be ignorant of it, just as the biggest American privelege is to be ignorant of other countries. when you're on top, why give a damn about who's on the bottom as long as they keep you on top? why should you be aware of it? why not just put on that you're persecuted even though minorities are laughably misrepresented in the government, in the media, in the financial arena. did you ever wonder why there's a bigger amount of minorities is sports that become stars than say, movies or music? it's because you can't cheat as easily in sports. you're either talented or you're not. there's absolutely no logic for there not to be the same amount of representations of minorities in movies, music, politics or business, because it's the same amount of people, isn't it? do you think that there are somehow less people of minorities that have the ability and talent to be involved in acting, music, politics or business? no, they just have a hell of a lot more odds stacked against them to succeed. what other possible explanation is there for it? i mean, unless you're willing to say people of minorities are lazy or stupid. or maybe you do believe that, considering you only think some one of a different race could get the same job as you because some one 'felt sorry for them.' you can't speak as freely? really? so when you complain about your situation, you're not just dismissed as 'playing the race card?' i would ask you to seriously read up or watch some of Jane Elliot's (a white teacher, btw) Blue Eyes / Brown Eyes expiriments. if you'd like, i could also provide some links to a Havard study regarding applications to various colleges-- men with 'African sounding' names and no criminal record were far less likely to get accepted than people with 'white sounding' names with criminal records. they were also less likely to be hired by major companies. then again, you could refuse to look at these studies, so i'm not feeling particularly moved to look them up for you. you seem to be pretty comfortably seated in your ignorance. as a white person, you have the choice not to face the reality of what hundreds of years of racism have done to this country. that's something that people of racial minorities don't get to do. as much as you decry it, it is the reality of millions of people in this country, and they don't get to look away. laugh at me if you want. call it ******** if you want. you're only proving me further right, in the end, and that saddens me. i'd like to live in a world without racism, but just pretending it's not there won't make it disappear.

anime in general end in two ways: with nothing resolved, or everyone dying. it's just the Eastern approach to storytelling. think about your life-- how many times have all of your loose ends been tied up and you just got to stop at the most comfortable moment? try 'never' and you'd be in the right ballpark. real journeys don't end until you die, and even then, depending on what you believe, they don't. so as irritating as it is for us, who have been spoon fed 'and they lived happily ever after', it's appropriate for these stories to end this way. otherwise, you're taking away one of the most powerful cultural sensebilities, part of what gives anime its heart and poignancy. it reminds me of something Neil Gaiman wrote, from the perspective of a waitress who rewrites the stories of her customers to have neatly-wrapped endings rather than their real, possibly unpleasant, chaotic lives. granted this isn't a direct quote as i'm too lazy to find the volume of [i]The Sandman[/i] it's in: "the secret to her stories is she knew when to stop writing them. write any story too long, and it always ends in death."

[quote name='Tatsubei Yagyu][COLOR=Navy][FONT=Comic Sans MS]I heard from fanatic lady friends of mine that L'arc~en~Ceil broke up, and hyde's doin' his own thing. Does anybody know about this?[/FONT'][/COLOR][/quote] there was a period several years ago where L'Arc didn't have much activity and all of them worked on solo projects-- Hyde as himself, Tetsu as Tetsu69, Ken in his band Sons of All Pussys (SOAPS), Yukihiro with his industrial project acid android. at this point, they had been together so long, people wondered if they were breaking up. this was not the case-- since then they've produced SMILE and Awake, and are still at the tops of the charts in Japan. yes, Hyde is still involved with his solo project. actually, Tetsu's coming out with a new single soon as well. it doesn't mean the band is breaking up, and there's no word of them breaking out-- they've been 10 years and going strong.

[QUOTE=bellpickle][SIZE=1]A couple years back, I was unhealthily obsessed with L'Arc~en~Ciel and Gackt. But I'm not going to talk about them in length, because almost anyone who's into Japanese music already knows about them. Instead, here are some great artists that are almost completely overlooked in the anime fandom: Shiina Ringo Buck-Tick B'z Takui Glay Luna Sea And, of course, X-Japan In fact, here's [URL=http://www.projectj.net/ ][U]a good webpage dedicated solely to Japanese artists[/U][/URL].[/SIZE][/QUOTE] omg, i love you forever. i love love Shiina Ringo, Buck-Tick and Luna Sea. not so much into the others, but it's lamentable how few people know about them. have you ever heard Sugizo's project The FLARE? they're awesome, but unfortunately recently broke up. right now i'm heavily into the Japanese band Merry. i also love Daisuke Asakura, who's best known in this fandom as the producer who 'discovered' TMR and writes all his music, he also co-wrote all the music for the anime Gravitation and one of the characters, Tohma, seems to be modeled after him. BTW to who mentioned it, Sobakasu is by Judy & Mary, though they've long since broken up, the vocalist YUKI has had a successful solo career and her stuff is pretty good. Fukai Mori is Do As Infinity, a band i really enjoy.

i'm a nice guy, people say. and i've had a girlfriend (a [i]hot[/i] girfriend, no less!) for 4 years. there's a difference between being nice and being spineless. if you let a girl treat you badly, they're going to walk all over you and think you're a weakling, and of course they aren't going to see you as dating material. you need to be upfront about your feelings. if you think her boyfriend's a jerk, say so. if she's being emasculating, point it out to her. you don't deserve to have to sit through that kind of crap, you're a human being, and even if you just want to be a good friend, those relationships are based on mutual respect. if you don't demand that respect, do you think it's going to spontaneously appear? it's not being 'nice' to insult some one's gender to their face. and it's not 'nice' to just tolerate it. stand up for yourself! i'm not saying call her a ***** and punch her in the face, but at least tell her that as a man you take offense. blame women not liking nice men all you like, but i'll tell you this: people call me a nice guy all the time, and i'm only reasonably attractive, but i've still had my share of women interested in me. which leads me to believe the center of the problem is you. you're willing to be a doormat, through your own actions and the women you choose to stay around, and as long as you do that, of course women are going to treat you like one. self-confidence doesn't grow on trees, and i'm by no means some king of charisma. but a little spine goes a long way. be honest with women. don't hold back or just tell them only what you think they want to hear. you'll never get anywhere if you just let them stomp on you, you won't have any chance to show your personality.

treat this as a learning experience. you've got the rare oppurtunity to understand how people from a racial minority feel most of the time. it's a little uncomfortable when you're not around people who have the same culture and looks as you, isn't it? at least when you walk out of this class, you'll be able to put back on all the priveleges being white affords you. as far as getting along with your classmates... just be yourself, and be polite and nice. it's much easier than putting on any sort of act, and people can sense when you're confident about yourself and in general, will respect that.

Akira Battle Arena Toshinden Tekken OVA Bubblegum Crisis OVA Iria: The Zeiram OVA El Hazard Ranma 1/2 Maison Ikkoku Inuyasha Earthian FAKE OVA Gundam Wing Aika Lost Universe Slayers! Vision of Escaflowne Neon Genesis Evangelion Oh My Goddess! Love Hina Tenchi Muyo! Gravitation Cowboy Bebop Trigun Samurai Champloo Mai-hime Sailormoon Stars All 3 Sailormoon movies, and Ami no hatsukoi Perfect Blue Tokyo Godfathers Metropolis Adolescence of Utena Blood: The Last Vampire Nightwalker Magic Knights Rayearth Jubei-chan the Ninja Girl Excel Saga Fushigi Yuugi Serial Expiriments Lain Fullmetal Alchemist Cardcaptor Sakura Angelic Layer RahXephon Record of Lodoss War (OVA and TV) Rune Soldier Louie Wild Arms Final Fantasy OVA Nausicaa and the Valley of Wind His and Her Circumstances Mononoke-hime Laputa: Castle in the Sky Grave of the Fireflies Spirited Away Serial Expiriments Lain Irresponsible Captain Tyler Starship Nadesico Onegai Twins Planetes Pokemon One Piece Project A-Ko Armitage III Haibane Renmei Paranoia Agent Rurouni Kenshin Kiki's Delivery Service FuriKuri Noir Naruto Vampire Hunter D Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within Beck Revolutionary Girl Utena Yu Yu Hakusho Chobits Wolf's Rain Read or Die Fruits Basket Azumanga Daioh La Blue Girl Bible Black The Big O Nadia: Secret of Blue Water Lupin the IIrd Tonaro no Totoro Tokio Private Police The Elf Bride Dragon Pink Bondage Queen Kate Dragon Knight Mystery of the Necronomicon Cool Devices Can Can Bunny Extra Twin Angels Sakura Diaries Mezzo Forte Ogenki Clinic Lunatic Night Advancer Tina Imma Youjo Immoral Sisters that's not counting all the ones i've seen a few scattered episodes of and just don't remember well enough...

i don't know that it matters so much what you believe as what you do. of couse what you believe effects what you do, so in that way it does matter, but i'm not about to say one way is right and another way is wrong, as long as what you do is good. of course then we can get into a debate of what 'good' is, but though there are many points people contend on, there are still points that most people can agree on, like the Golden Rule. as far as neo-Paganism goes... my aunt's Pagan and i've done some celebrations. she really believes and it makes her happy, and if it's what fulfills her spiritually then i can't see what's wrong with it. it didn't do anything for me... except that Pagans have much better shindigs that Christians, with way better music and food. XD

i constantly have weird dreams, so i couldn't pick just one. like just the other day. i had a dream that i was being chased around the house by a shark in the floor. i think the most upsetting dream i've had is where my best childhood friend, who had passed away a year before, came to me and said he wasn't dead, that his parents were covering it up, and i needed to uncover the truth. yeah, creepy stuff, but i saw the body so i know it's not true. ._.; another time i had a dream that my dog (also dead for some time) was in the bathroom with his throat cut, and nobody would say anything, everyone just avoided that room. then there was the time that i dreamt i was on a roadtrip to AZ with my family but for some reason we broke down in the desert and we were all waiting by the side of a road when a bus sidled up. like a living thing. i started to run away but it went off the road and fell on me and crushed me to death. yeah, i had a long period where i dreamt constantly of my own death. >>;

i own the first 3 or 4 volumes of Banana Fish translated as well as the art book. it's an excecllent series, however the first time it was translated they put it on hiatus (this was before the 'great manga influx' and i suppose it just wasn't doing well enough). i was so into it at the time that i actually e-mailed the guy that translated it and he said he hadn't been contacted to do more. it's an amazingly engaging story of a teenager named Ash who lives on the streets of New York, and how he gets caught up with an innocent Japanese teenager, Eiji, and the intrigue of a secret drug Ash gets ahold of by chance. there are hints of shounen ai, but my straight guy friends love it anyway. it has a lot of great characters, however i've chosen not to keep reading it even though it seems they're being translated again. hungering to read anything else more about it, i searched fansites for anything Banana Fish and ran across a horrible spoiler that basically ruined the story for me. [spoiler]i found out Ash has to kill Shorter Wong because he's going mad from the Banana Fish drug, and at the end of the series Ash is killed on his way to the airport to say goodbye to Eiji, and my heart just can't take that. ;-;[/spoiler] if you like something different, stylistically and story wise, and also want to see where plot-oriented shojo manga has its roots, i'd suggest Banana Fish.

i will be attending Sakuracon 2006, which is at the Seattle convention center this year, on March 25-27 i'll hopefullly be attending A-Kon in Dallas, which is in June sometime. *crosses fingers* as of yet i don't have anything else planned.

i really enjoyed the movie, would see it again but wouldn't ever probably get a major urge to watch it, like i do sometimes with LOTR. i thought it was a little long, but then again there was nothing in the movie that i didn't think should be there. though i didn't know all the background of the original movie (i vaguely remember being bored by the 70s remake... anyway thank you Alex for your enlightening insights on it!), i thought it was great they showed the entire ecosystem of the island, right down to the scavengers. it was stylish, pretentious, romantic in every sense of the word-- not just in the relationships, but in its values and its outlook. i'm guessing one of the reasons it didn't do as well in the box office as suspected is becacuse it came out so close to Narnia. really, two big 'must see' movies coming out so close together is bad for both of the films. and as far as critics and all of that-- Peter Jackson had stated that it was a movie he was making for is 8-year-old son, and he didn't care what critics thought. i think that this is a triumph on his part. he had enough leeway to make the movie he really wanted to make, and it's obvious how much fun everyone had with it. i can't wait to see his next effort.

1. Berryz Koubou - aisuru no hito no namae wo nikki ni 2. Daisuke Asakura - Mytyl [Mirai no Kuni] 3. Head Phones President - Wondering 4. MC Frontalot - Message 419 (San Francisco '03) 5. Björk - In the Musicals 6. InuYasha - Change the World 7. Kanye West - Skit #4 8. Isa - Torn and Broken 9. Tori Amos - Proffessional Widow (Armand's Star Trunk Funkin' Mix) 10. SADS - What Can I Do

i've been a fan of L'Arc... over 6 years now. wow. unlike a lot of old-skool fans i like the direction they've gone in, though i'm a little unimpressed with the recent influx of fan. i guess it's just old fart syndrome setting in. *l* my favorite songs are, in no particular order: Finale Neo Universe Pieces Perfect Blue Dive to Blue Bravery Neo Universe Are You Feeling Fine? I'm So Happy Butterfly's Sleep Twinkle, Twinkle Time Slip

when i was younger, i was a lot like Shinji. tormented, depressed, and now that i look at it, pretty whiny to boot. now i'm a little more like Yuki Eiri from Gravitation, though i'd say i'm not QUITE as big of an asshole. but how he can be very cranky and has his walls up-- and only lets certain people in, the least expected, craziest and goofiest ones-- i identify with that. also, how he has a past that keeps haunting him.